Although Class of 1984 is dated -- literally -- it remains one of the most fun and most gleefully trashy high-school-is-hell flicks of all time. Foul language, gratuitous violence, and tight leather pants abound, and with a nice big splash of bloody revenge for a climax, the movie is ultimately irresistible. This is more than a blackboard jungle. It's a blackboard war zone.

New music teacher Andrew has arrived at a very dangerous inner-city high school with hopes of inspiring students to new heights of excellence. Fat chance in a school that's under constant threat from a small but wonderfully stylish and truly threatening gang led by the charismatic Stegman (Timothy Van Patten). It just so happens that he's a talented musician, but he's also a psychopath, and that side of his personality is the dominant one. Van Patten is extremely effective and really scary as Stegman. The fact that the movie has a cult following to this day is due mainly to his performance.

Although Class of 1984 is dated -- literally -- it remains one of the most fun and most gleefully trashy high-school-is-hell flicks of all time. Foul language, gratuitous violence, and tight leather pants abound, and with a nice big splash of bloody revenge for a climax, the movie is ultimately irresistible. This is more than a blackboard jungle. It's a blackboard war zone.

New music teacher Andrew has arrived at a very dangerous inner-city high school with hopes of inspiring students to new heights of excellence. Fat chance in a school that's under constant threat from a small but wonderfully stylish and truly threatening gang led by the charismatic Stegman (Timothy Van Patten). It just so happens that he's a talented musician, but he's also a psychopath, and that side of his personality is the dominant one. Van Patten is extremely effective and really scary as Stegman. The fact that the movie has a cult following to this day is due mainly to his performance.

No one involved with movies like this does it for the art; they just hope someone will notice the credit on their resume in the hopes that someone in Hollywood notice, or for the quick buck, or maybe (as in the case of Lesley-Anne Down) they're married to the director (the cheesily self-named Don E. FauntLeRoy).

Freaky Andy Warhol production straight out of the John Waters school -- or likely, the other way around. Story of a woman who runs an electrolysis shop and a females-only hit squad out of her house. How much acid did it take to dream that one up???

There are certain authors that simply do not lend themselves towards adaptation. The reason for this makes perfect sense: when one reads a book, they are forced by the book to envision the world that the author creates. When one is part of the visual medium of film, the world looks more like reality. Since the world looks more like reality, we are prone to question it in greater detail.

That is why successfully adapting a Vonnegut is one of the Holy Grails of film adaptation.

"The Day After Tomorrow" isn't quite the disaster of a disaster flick I thought it would be.

Don't get me wrong -- it's bad in a way only $150-million movies with awe-inspiring special effects can be bad. It's riddled with nonsensical pseudo-science, saddled with supposedly brainy characters (climatologists, high-school science whizzes) who nonetheless haven't a scrap of common sense, and stuffed with stock characters designed for the kind of instant sympathy (or instant comic relief) that doesn't require actually giving them a personality.

But for popcorn munching and smart-remarking during a bargain matinee, it's a bad movie worth the price of admission.